The present invention relates to housing assemblies, in particular vehicle door latch housing assemblies including a latch housing and a latch cable assembly.
Known latch cable assemblies include a cable outer and a cable inner. The cable inner is connected at one end to a handle and at the other end to a moving part of a vehicle door latch. The latch is housed inside a latch housing, the cable outer being fixed to the latch housing such that movement of the handle acts to move the cable inner which operates the moving part of the latch.
It is also known to rigidly fix the cable outer to the latch housing. A cost effective and quick method of fixing the cable outer to the latch housing is by ultrasonic welding. However, the transmission of vibrations to the cable outer as a result of the ultrasonic welding can cause the cable outer to bum or melt.
When such a latch housing is assembled onto part of a vehicle door, it is often in a confined and/or difficult to access space. When assembling the latch (with the attached cable) to the vehicle it is necessary to manipulate the cable through various angles, which causes strain on the cable outer and its joint to the latch. The increased strain on the cable outer results in deformation and can lead to crack formation, particularly where the cable outer has been burned or melted as a result of ultrasonic welding. This increases the friction between the cable outer and inner, and in the case where a crack has formed, the cable inner is exposed to a potentially corrosive environment. This results in a decrease in performance of the cable assembly which is unacceptable to customers. Furthermore, the cable to latch joint can be destroyed, leading to non-opening of the door due to outer cable detachment.
This problem can be partially overcome by specifying cable outer materials of high flexibility. However such materials are costly.